General: Simons was born in The Netherlands on December 25, 1982.
Education: He studied violin with Prof. Saschko Gawriloff, composition with Daan Manneke and James MacMillan and conducting with Ed Spanjaard, ...

Another painting of his called Sant Egidio, where the four religions are represented by four men with the same faces (just clothed differently and with different facial hairstyles) representing the four main world religions reading together from one book, was the source for one particular passage in my concerto. This passage is played by the principals of the string orchestra (with the exception of the contrabass, thus forming a string quartet) in which the first violin is quoting Erbarme Dich from Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. Matthew Passion representing Christianity, the second violin is playing several Klezmer melodies representing Judaism, the viola is playing a raga-like melody representing Hindu and the cello is beating with the bow’s wood on the strings an Egyptian rhythm dating back to the days of Prophet Mohammed representing Islam. All of these four different types of music happen in the above-mentioned passage at the same time.

The aggressive nature found in the Biblical texts from the Books of Moses were also a source of inspiration.

In the piano and solo viola the theme from J. S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations is quoted with the appoggiaturas rhythmically written out according to Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s book Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments. - Marijn Simons